International Law Benefitting Humans

Question: Depict about the International Law and a few elements about the law. Answer: The International Law: 100 Ways it Shapes Our Lives was conceptualized from the possibility that International Law exists as well as dives deep and comprehensively into everyones life than how it is commonly perceived. One can discover 101 International Laws which are profiting people since ages. These laws have molded our lives to be better and made sure about. Today we will talk about around 12 of my preferred such laws. The presence of the Prime Meridian and the Greenwich Meridian one can understand what is the current information or time dependent on their area on planet Earth. I picked this as it encourages me know about the information and time when im voyaging cross nations. Mail administration With trust and unwavering quality today I am ready to utilize postal system to speak with my friends and family. Independent of my area or theirs I can be certain that my correspondence will be gotten by them. Safe driving International law has ensured drivers everywhere throughout the world maintain security gauges. Consequently, regardless of where I drive or somebody drives me I think everything is under the International Law. Home Being ready to consider what I own as my own home gives huge security. Under law one can take responsibility for own bought land Media communications With broadcast communications now no more are my friends and family far. Under law I am ready to speak with any one I need. Normalized one second time A period length of one second is same wherever on the planet. Consequently, this helps settling on amazing choices and estimations in ones life Programming International law causes us utilize normalized programming in our PCs everywhere throughout the world. Climate information The most recent climate conjecture settled on helps deciding. It likewise defends human life from unsure climate perils. News and information The whole world is at our home TV. With global law everybody can get most recent news from everywhere throughout the world. BBC Radio communicate For me hearing BBC while driving on my radio causes me a ton. Being related with the securities exchange I get the most recent updates on the monetary states of the nation Eatables A wide assortment of eatables helps keep sound. Food is the embodiment of life and it keeps me alive. Alongside food new clean drinking water is alive as well. Solace garments For the best possible introduction of my own self im offered better than average, reasonable and great quality garments anyplace I go on the planet.

What are the main differences in the organisation of the labour Essay

What are the primary contrasts in the association of the work procedure in Fordism and Post-Fordism Use a contextual analysis to clarify your answer - Essay Example The activity in the modern units wasn’t empowering for the representatives. The assembling strategy was not engaging for the workforce. Researchers were examining in regards to creative procedures which could raise the riches and could construct their country more grounded. Post-Fordism is established on the matchless quality of an adaptable and enduringly imaginative model of development and it depends on adaptable creation, developing incomes for proficient representatives (Jessop, N.D.). This article clarifies the different highlights of Fordism and post-Fordism Fordism is a model of Taylorism. Friedrich Taylor (1856-1915) talked with respect to the essentialness of a reasonable and fit association of partnerships by consistency of the assembling system. In Taylorism the officials had less understanding in regards to the viable work engaged with the creation; subsequently the administrators must be familiar with how the assembling was arranged. Taylor expressed that the potential speculation should be isolated from the shop and set in the arranging office offering duty to official to work severely official in its character. The administrators needed to fix on what the workers should perform. This is the genuine importance of Taylorism: the parcel of reasoning and doing. While a worker thought in regards to his activity he familiar with it and attempts to improve it. Human and machine must be unified with no estimation for the worker that he is a sort of a robot. The planning division required to have a proficient assembling method despite the fact that laborers needed to have a brilliant installment, less working hours and a decent workplace. Passage acknowledged the centrality of the connection including worker and boss. He set up an eight-hour workday and offered improved installment for upgraded creation. Anyway these advancements were set up on a money related base to make improved profit of work (Beek, et al. N.D). Henry Ford was an acknowledged image of the change from

How to Write a Term Paper Wiseessays Com

How to Write a Term Paper Wiseessays ComMost students have a pretty difficult time figuring out how to write a term paper in the first place. It's one of those problems that's so seemingly impossible to solve that most students either give up or make it really hard for themselves. I'm going to show you how to write a term paper using a technique that I call Wiseessays Com. This method is simple, cheap, and easy.The first thing you need to understand about writing a term paper is that you can't get too specific. You need to be as general as possible. You don't want to put too much thought into your term paper because you don't want to spend too much time thinking about the subject matter. But, you also don't want to be too specific either because you don't want to waste time and effort just to have to find and fix something you didn't think about.The best way to approach writing a term paper is to write a piece that will help you increase your confidence in taking out the trash and du mping your laundry. Write a term paper on writing a term paper on that and then you'll be well on your way to being able to tackle the task at hand. Here's the Wiseessays Com method for you.The first thing you need to do is grab a piece of paper and a pen. That's what I use and it works pretty well. Just write down a few things you'd like to include in your term paper and then write a little description about why you feel that this is a good piece of writing and not something you should be wasting your time on.If you don't have any type of word processing software on your computer, I recommend using Word Perfect because it's free and it's pretty basic. I also recommend running it on a blank document because it will make it a lot easier to determine how many sentences you need and when you need them. Then all you need to do is just fill it out with your emotions and thoughts.When you're actually sitting down to write a term paper, the phrase Wiseessays Com comes in handy. Wiseessays Com is the process of writing a term paper using the Wiseessays format, which is essentially a word processor type of format that makes it easy to do, cheap, and fun. You basically just copy and paste the text into your document and copy and paste some passages.A good term paper doesn't necessarily have to be perfect. It just has to be effective at the very least.You could write a term paper without any discipline and still come out with a great piece of writing. You just need to keep your confidence in check and do a little bit of the Wiseessays format and you'll be fine.

EVALUATION OF RESOURES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Assessment OF RESOURES - Essay Example Considering the potential effect of ICT in the learning exercises of the understudies, instructive specialists have been reliably concentrating how ICT can be utilized as an academic apparatus in improving the learning capacity of the understudies. (Pearson, 2003; National Research Council, 2000) For this investigation, the analyst will decide the commitment of the accompanying learning assets: advanced cameras, Alphasmart key watchman, Microsoft PowerPoint introduction and Microsoft Word towards the learning exercises of the standard and unique instructive needs (SEN) understudies by leading a short writing audit. Preceding the end, the specialist will lead a quantitative and subjective study investigation so as to assess the effect of these learning assets with the Science learning exercises of standard and SEN understudies. Corresponding to the learning exercises of standard and SEN understudies, innovation can be utilized as an educating and learning instrument that empowers the teachers and understudies to become co-students by cooperatively building information. (Reed and McNergney, 2000) For example, the utilization of advanced cameras empower the teachers and understudies to record instructive excursion or a particular learning experience to empower the two gatherings to audit the learning procedure on a later date. In accordance with this issue, innovation behind computerized cameras make it feasible for teachers and understudies to encounter a certifiable instances of ‘learning by doing.’ Contingent upon the learning capacity of these understudies, understudies could without much of a stretch make a school report by recording certain learning occasions utilizing the computerized camera with the end goal of a gathering or individual class introduction. (Wellington and Wellington, 2002) during the time spent having the option to make a class introduction utilizing digitalized visual materials, the understudies will have the option to construct fearlessness with their work since these materials could empower them to catch

Innovative Approaches to Corporate Management

Inventive Approaches to Corporate Management Free Online Research Papers After a seemingly endless amount of time after year similar organizations wind up on the Fortune 500 rundown. One shared factor has been their way to deal with corporate administration. All together for an organization to be effective in today’s advertise, organizations must have an obvious vision as a statement of purpose and make a corporate culture which moves that vision into a reality. Organizations can't fear change, but instead grasp it and view it as an approach to take their organizations to the following level and become a model for different organizations to copy. Inventive Approaches to Corporate Management In 2001, Enron, situated in Houston, Texas, was one of the world’s driving power, petroleum gas, and interchanges organizations. Fortune Magazine named Enron as one of America’s most creative organization for six successive years from 1996-2001(Enron, 2006). Enron was very much situated in the market, and there appeared to be no halting this powerhouse organization. Before the finish of 2001, Enron had defaulted on some loans and turned out to be, ostensibly, the greatest corporate disappointment in American history because of poor corporate administration (Epstein, 2006). While Enron’s Chief Executive Officer, officials, and directors let debasement, contemptibility, and avarice be their mantra for corporate administration, effective organizations, for example, Microsoft were prospering by adopting creative strategies to their corporate administration arrangements. Microsoft was established in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico and consolidates in 1981 (Microsoft, 2007). More than 30 years after the fact Microsoft has become the main programming organization on the planet today on account of the improvement of a product bundle called Windows (Microsoft, 2007). Windows is found on essentially every home and office PC being used today. In monetary year 2006, Microsoft produced over $44 billion dollars and returned $26 billion to its investors (Microsoft, 2007). Presently, Microsoft utilizes more than 76,000 individuals in more than 100 nations and keeps on extending to new markets (Microsoft, 2007). Microsoft’s by and large achievement can be ascribed to their corporate administration and corporate administration. In the 1970’s and mid 1980’s organizations ordinarily held executive gatherings, and the administrators sat in the meeting space to choose the company’s destiny in their morning gatherings. Before the finish of the 1980’s and the mid 1990’s, organizations utilized new strategies by employing supposed visionaries to help bring their organization into the new thousand years, however experienced difficulty executing the vision into a working arrangement, or they confronted opposition from the basic laborer who couldn't exactly observe the â€Å"big picture† on the grounds that they were not aware of the considerable number of bits of the riddle. Organizations like Microsoft had the option to outperform their opposition by moving that vision from the board space to the quarterly shareholder’s meeting and afterward to the lunchroom with the goal that they had the option to move their vision into execution. A prime case of Microsoft moving v ision into execution is the gaming framework X-Box. At the point when Bill Gates initially declared the X-Box when the new century rolled over, everybody thought he was frantic or outright insane. Sony was the leader with the Playstation, and Nintendo was running a nearby second with the Game Cube, while Sega was raising the back in third spot with the Saturn (Chang Kakuchi, 2000). The gaming market appeared to be difficult to infiltrate given the opposition creating such quality gaming frameworks, however Microsoft was resolved to declare their essence with expert in an industry noted for its resistance to pariahs. Entryways promoted his vision to deliver a gaming console to more than 150 engineers including any semblance of Activision, Konami, Capcom, Eidos, Epic, and in the end Entertainment Arts (Microsoft, 2007). After seven years, Microsoft has asserted the number two spot, just somewhat behind Sony (Ars Technia, 2007). Having a dream is a certain something, anyway having the option to adequately impart that vision to the most minimal level inside the organization is another methodology corporate directors are taking. Corporate correspondence is fundamental in deciding the achievement of a business. For a business to run effectively, great lines of correspondence must be set up among the executives and staff. Numerous organizations allude to this methodology as the â€Å"open door† or the â€Å"top down† arrangement. Inventive scholars understood that senior initiative didn't generally have the appropriate responses or present the best thoughts and that occasionally the best thoughts originated from the hourly representative out in the channels doing the day by day commonplace work. Being open and responsive to such thoughts permitted workers to make their own vision and advanced a feeling of cooperation. Accomplishing that â€Å"buy-in† from workers and permitting them to feel as though they can influence change is basic to organization endurance and life span. Communicating vision to representatives, however investors and clients too, is additionally another imaginative methodology found inside numerous effective organizations. Microsoft directs quarterly investor gatherings to convey the present status of the organization by giving their speculators and clients exact and genuine data concerning budgetary reports, innovations, workers, and development plans, just to give some examples (Microsoft, 2007). Notwithstanding quarterly gatherings, Microsoft likewise posts the data on their site for people in general to see too. The group idea is one more methodology predominant in a considerable lot of the top organizations recorded on the Fortune 500. Rather than a senior to subordinate relationship, fruitful organizations are adjusting to a partner to colleague plan of action. The advantages of group building exercises increment group inspiration in a fun and loosened up condition: they support camaraderie, increment correspondence, get groups cooperating, help groups to become acquainted with one another, improve authority aptitudes, assist groups with learning new quality and assemble trust inside organizations (Accolade, 2007). Another advantage of group building is the breakdown of conventional hindrances that were regularly business as usual in corporate America. By moving the chiefs out of their private workplaces and permitting representatives to cooperate with them on a progressively close to home level, it made a situation substantially more helpful for joint effort. Corporate directors must be t he first to step outside of their customary ranges of familiarity and lead. Today, the job of corporate administration is to encourage change. One methodology that Microsoft advances is the execution of more current advances. An examination division inside Microsoft is â€Å"dedicated to directing both essential and applied research in software engineering and programming engineering†(Microsoft, 2007). They straightforwardly team up with numerous schools and colleges everywhere throughout the globe. With the bounty of progress happening in the corporate world, and the usage of more up to date advances, the street ahead can be hazy. It is imperative to make a corporate culture which takes into account workers to beat their feelings of trepidation: dread of the obscure and dread of being off-base. A great deal can be said about an organization just by investigating the corporate culture and the manner in which representatives are dealt with. As per Wong (2002), there are four sound styles of corporate societies: Progressive-versatile culture, Purpose-driven culture, Community-arranged culture, and Peo ple-focused culture. Organizations are not multi-million dollar companies for the time being and advancements are not imagined in a day. As a rule, a lot of experimentation goes into the disclosure of more up to date and improved approaches to work together and smoothing out procedures. In the end the wrongs will transform into rights, the obscure will become more clear, and the vision will turn into a reality. Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, and Worldcom are largely instances of late corporate disappointments (The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 2007). Their disappointments all come down to one normal mix-up, poor corporate administration. In the interim, similar organizations reliably keep on making the Fortune 500 rundown quite a long time after year. Investigating the course of history and the development for every one of these organizations, their prosperity can be characterized by the advancements to their each and own corporate administration approaches. References Honor. (2007). Group building. Recovered June 16, 2007, from honor corporate- events.com/group building.htm Ars Technia, LLC. (2007). From the news work area. Recovered June 17, 2007, from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060611-7030.html Chang, M., Kakuchi, S. (2000). Business: Game, set and match. Asia Week, 29, 26 Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. (2006). Public statements 2001. Recovered June 15, 2007, from enron.com/corp/pressroom/discharges/2001 Epstein, A. (2006, July 7). The Unlearned Lesson of Ken Lay and Enron. Private enterprise Magazine. Recovered June 15, 2007, from http://capmag.com/index.asp Microsoft Corporation. (2007). Yearly reportst. Recovered June 16, 2007, from microsoft.com Microsoft Corporation. (2007). Quick realities about Microsoft. Recovered June 16, 2007, from microsoft.com Microsoft Corporation. (2007). News chronicle. Recovered June 16, 2007, from microsoft.com The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. (2007). Capital thoughts. Recovered June 17, 2007, from chicagogsb.edu/capideas/fall03/corporategovernance.html Wong, P. T. P. (2002). Making a positive, important work atmosphere: another test for the executives and administration. In B. Pattanayak and V. Gupta (Eds.) Creating performing associations: International points of view for Indian administration. New Delhi, India: Sage. Research Papers on Innovative Approaches to Corporate ManagementThe Project Managment Office SystemAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductTwilight of t

Data And Sampling Procedure Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Alternative Investment Market is a part of the London Stock Exchange market and it is designed for small and emerging companies to raise money from the public. The purpose of this report is to find and analyse the variables affect the non-financial companies IPO initial return in AIM between 2005 and 2010. Data and Sampling procedure Our main sources of information are the London Stock Exchange website, Perfect filings and Bloomberg, where we obtained all the necessary company information for analysis. First of all, we selected all the companies which started floating on the AIM between January 2005 and December 2010 from the London Stock Exchange Website, there were 1142 companies in total. After excluding all the financial-related companies and outliers which had exceptionally high initial returns, we then split up the remaining companies into two groups according to their listing year to observe the impact of financial crisis. We assumed the beginning of 2008 is the breaking point of the crisis. Secondly, we applied the stratified random sampling procedure to select companies respectively for each sample. We obtained two samples of 46 companies each, for which Sample 1 consists of companies that were listed before 2008 and Sample 2 consists of companies that listed after 2008. Descriptive statistics Regarding to our two samples, on average, companies from Sample 1 have raised 160.21m and companies from Sample 2 have raised 231.33m from the AIM where INTERNATIONAL FERRO METALS and SKIL PORTS LOGISTICS LTD are the highest-valued IPO deals within their sample which rose 800m and 760m respectively. In Sample 1, the offer price ranges between 2p and 503.7p and has a mean of 102.92p (See Appendix Table 1). On the other hand, the offer size of Sample 2 ranges between 0.6p and 13000p with a mean of 385.83p in Sample 2 (See Appendix Table 2). Lastly, Sample 1 has a standard deviation of 92.141 where that of Sample 2 is 1904.855, this huge difference is mainly due to the 13000p offer price issued by TGE MARINE AG. Methodology Formulae for Initial return: Firstly, we calculated the initial return (ri) for each company and this was computed by finding the difference between the closing price on the 7th day (Pi) after flotation and the offering price (OPi) and then divide it by the OPi. We then computed the average returns and the standard deviations of the initial returns for each sample. Formulae for Mean and Standard Deviation: (Note: n is the number of companies in each sample) In order to test whether the initial return of each sample is statistically different from zero, we performed a t-test (since the population variance is unknown) to check whether the mean initial return of each sample is different from zero, and the Null Hypothesis is expressed as follow: Furthermore, we applied another t-test to assess whether the initial returns of our 2 samples are statistically different. Since it is not reasonable to assume the population standard deviations of the two samples are equal and at the same time they are unknown, we apply the t statistic and the Hypothesis Test as follow: After the tests, we proceeded to the next stage where we analysed the factors and variables that would affect the initial returns of IPOs on the AIM. We performed a Linear Regression Analysis to explore the correlations between our chosen independent variables and the initial returns whilst taking into account of the additive and multiplicative dummy variables which would represent the qualitative variables[1]. Results Initial returns We tested each sample individually and we found that the mean of each sample is significantly different from zero (at 5% significant level) and in general the closing prices of the stocks after 7days are higher than the offer prices (See Appendix Table 3-5). This is reflected in the positive means of initial returns in the two samples. Hence, the companies in both samples are on average underpriced and when investors buy an IPO and hold it for a week, they can still obtain a minimum of 10% positive return. We also took another test to check whether the initial returns of the two samples are significantly different from each other. However, the result is insignificant (at 5% significant level) which reflects the 2008 financial crisis has no real impact on the initial returns of IPOs after 2008 (See Appendix Table 6). Since the test results show that the IPOs are underpriced, we identified several factors both quantitative and qualitative that might contribute to such outcome. Money left on the table Money left on the table is the difference between the first day closing price and the offer price and multiplied by the number of shares. It is the total amount of money investors are willing to pay over the original money required by the issuers. According to Ritter and Loughran (2004), if the investors are paying a premium over the issue price value on the first day of quoting, then it is expected that the short-term returns on the investment on those companies should be higher. Our results (coefficient 2.10e-09) (See Appendix Table 7) indicated that money left on the table has a positive impact on the return obtained by investor on a week after the issue date, and such low value is explained by Money left on the table usually is a big amount on money in comparison with percentage return registered on the initial return. It has a p-value of 0.000 at 5% significant level, hence it should be included in the model. Market value Market value takes into account the market capitalization and the debt outstanding in the company. Market value can be defined as the company size by proxy. Ibboston and Ritter (1994) found that in short run there is a negative impact on the return on the investments of new companies when the companies are larger and it is presumed that there is less uncertainty. According to our model results, Market value has the expected negative effect on initial return, with coefficient of -6.27e10 and it has a p-value of 0.000 (See Appendix Table 7) which is highly significant, so we are keeping the variable in the model. Market index return According to Boubaker (2011), market return over a period has a significant effect on the IPO listing. The market index acts as an investor behaviour sentiment indicator, so the return of stock on that day is highly correlated to the return on the index and therefore contributes to the underpricing or overpricing of IPOs. The linear regression gave the market index (AXX Index) return a p-value of 0.009 and a correlation coefficient of 1.57 (See Appendix Table 7) which we were able to prove that it is a significant independent variable that has a positive correlation with the initial return of IPO. Earnings before IPO Profit of a company is a very important factor for investor to consider as it represents the profitability of the firm and would ultimately affect investors expectation and return. As the study paper (Rhee, 2002) prepared for the OECD Round Table meeting shows there is a 30% difference in returns for IPOs between companies with positive and negative earnings. We took this as an independent variable and obtained the profit figures from every companys annual report in our samples. The result shows that the coefficient is and p-value of this variable is 0.347 (See Appendix Table 7), hence it is insignificant at the 5% significance level. We found no evidence for effects of earning management to initial returns for IPO. Number of shares traded after 7 days to number of shares issued The number of shares traded on the day has an impact on the return on share, Cornelli et al (2006) discovered that the total volume of transaction is positively correlated to investor behaviour which leads to higher prices, and hence higher initial returns. On the basis of our two samples extracted from the AIM, we are unable to establish these findings, since the regression result demonstrated the p-value of this variable is 0.145 which is higher than the 5% significant level (See Appendix Table 7). Therefore, there is no correlation between this factor and the initial return and it should not be incorporated into our model. Dummy Variables Regression with dummies and interactive dummies: We considered 3 models: Model 1(dummies only): Model 2(interactive dummies only): Model 3(both dummies and interactive dummies): (Note: The full outcome of regression analysis is shown in the Appendix Table 8-10) Monday effect dummy variable On the secondary market, there are several anomalies which are not following the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and capital asset pricing model (CAPM), such as the January effect (Haugen and Lakonishok, 1998; Ligon, 1997), the holiday effect (Ariel, 1990) and Monday effect (Jones and Ligon, 2009). IPOs offered on Monday are claimed to have higher initial return comparing to the other days in the week. We adopt this variable and take it as a dummy in our model where companies listed on Monday are denoted as 1 and companies listed on other days are 0. Research shows that calendar effect is not apparent in our samples with a p-value of 0.447 and a coefficient of 0.0238259. The result turns out to be insignificant at 5% significant level and it is inconsistent with the findings mentioned above. Sector dummy variable Ritter J.R. (1984) suggested that the returns are clustered according to sectors, therefore it is possible that sector variable can influence the return of the stock so we decided to use sector as a dummy variable. We used 1 for companies that belong to the energy and commodities industry and 0 for the rest. From the regression results, we were not able to identify a regular pattern that would justify the sector dummy variable having an impact on the initial returns. The sector dummy has a p-value of 0.211 which is not significant. Country dummy variable Demaskey and Olson (2006) explained that by disaggregating the return of ADRs according to the country of origin, there are significant differences in initial and aftermarket performances. We decided to use country origin of the company as a dummy variable and put 1 for UK companies and 0 for others. The p-value is 0.402 which suggests that the country variable is insignificant for the sample used. Underwriter ranking dummy variable Lowry et al (2010) believed that the actions (i.e. price revision) of underwriter would affect the pricing error of IPOs. They also mentioned that the higher the reputation of underwriters, the better the after-IPO service. In our model, rather than using Carter and Manaster (1990) underwriter ranking score as Lowry et al did, we chose another updated 2007 underwriter top 50 ranking from Bloomberg, and assumed the ranking of underwriter is constant from 2005 to 2010. We marked 1 for the dummy variable if the underwriter of IPO is in the list. As a result, it has a positive correlation coefficient and the p-value is 0.25 which is not significant. R2 increases from Model 1 to Model 3 because the more the variables, the higher the explanatory power of the model which implies that R2 is not a reasonable indicator. We then looked at the adjusted R2, and discovered that Model 1 gave the largest adjusted R2 (26.36%), which means putting aside the number of variables, model 1 best explained the dependent variable. Considering the independent variables are significant only in Model 1, we believe it is the best model among the three. Although the adjusted R2 of the original model and Model 1 are similar, we prefer the original model since none of the dummy variables in Model 1 is significant. Final insights This study aims at analysing the pricing of the IPOs on AIM and there are several points that we would like to address. Before conducting any tests, we anticipated that the financial crisis in 2008 would adversely affect the performance of the IPOs, but surprisingly the impact is negligible based on our hypothesis test afterwards. We tested the IPOs in our samples and proved that they were generally underpriced, and this is consistent with the past studies. We also investigated five quantitative variables and four qualitative variables and ultimately, we restricted and finalised our model with only three explanatory variables which are money left on the table, market value and market index return. Based on our analysis, these three variables have significant effects on the initial returns of IPOs and these are consistent with other empirical findings. However, for the factors that were assumed to be influential for underpricing such as earnings, the listing day, trading volume, sectors, country origin of the company and broker rankings are not significant determinants of the initial returns of the IPOs and this contradicts to the literatures we were referencing to. Finally, we suggest investors to invest in IPOs on the AIM when the following conditions are met: high market index return, companies with small ma rket value and big money left on the table. Appendix: Table 1 Table 2 Table 3Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10

History and Origins of Wheat Domestication

Wheat is a grain crop with some 25,000 different cultivars in the world today. It was domesticated at least 12,000 years ago, created from a still-living ancestor plant known as emmer. Wild emmer (reported variously as T. araraticum, T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides, or T. dicocoides), is a predominantly self-pollinating, winter annual grass of the Poaceae family and Triticeae tribe. It is distributed throughout the Near Eastern Fertile Crescent, including the modern countries of Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, eastern Turkey, western Iran, and northern Iraq. It grows in sporadic and semi-isolated patches and does best in regions with long, hot dry summers and short mild, wet winters with fluctuating rainfall. Emmer grows in diverse habitats from 100 m (330 ft) below sea level to 1700 m (5,500 ft) above, and can survive on between 200–1,300 mm (7.8–66 in) of annual precipitation. Wheat Varieties Most of the 25,000 different forms of modern wheat are varieties of two broad groups, called common wheat and durum wheat. Common or bread wheat Triticum aestivum accounts for some 95 percent of all the consumed wheat in the world today; the other five percent is made up of durum or hard wheat T. turgidum ssp. durum, used in pasta and semolina products. Bread and durum wheat are both domesticated forms of wild emmer wheat. Spelt (T. spelta) and Timopheevs wheat (T. timopheevii) were also developed from emmer wheats by the late Neolithic period, but neither has much of a market today. Another early form of wheat called einkorn (T. monococcum) was domesticated at about the same time but has limited distribution today. Origins of Wheat The origins of our modern wheat, according to genetics and archaeological studies, are found in the Karacadag mountain region of what is today southeastern Turkey—emmer and einkorn wheats are two of the classic eight founder crops of the origins of agriculture. The earliest known use of emmer was gathered from wild patches by the people who lived at the Ohalo II archaeological site in Israel, about 23,000 years ago. The earliest cultivated emmer has been found in the southern Levant (Netiv Hagdud, Tell Aswad, other Pre-Pottery Neolithic A sites); while einkorn is found in the northern Levant (Abu Hureyra, Mureybet, Jerf el Ahmar, Gà ¶bekli Tepe). Changes During Domestication The main differences between the wild forms and domesticated wheat are that domesticated forms have larger seeds with hulls and a non-shattering rachis. When wild wheat is ripe, the rachis—the stem that keeps the wheat shafts together—shatters so that the seeds can disperse themselves. Without hulls, they germinate rapidly. But that naturally useful brittleness doesnt suit humans, who prefer to harvest wheat from the plant rather than off the surrounding earth. One possible way that might have occurred is that farmers harvested wheat after it was ripe, but before it self-dispersed, thereby collecting only the wheat that was still attached to the plant. By planting those seeds the next season, the farmers were perpetuating plants that had later-breaking rachises. Other traits apparently selected for include spike size, growing season, plant height, and grain size. According to French botanist Agathe Roucou and colleagues, the domestication process also caused multiple changes in the plant that were generated indirectly. Compared to emmer wheat, modern wheat has shorter leaf longevity, and a higher net rate of photosynthesis, leaf production rate, and nitrogen content. Modern wheat cultivars also have a shallower root system, with a larger proportion of fine roots, investing biomass above rather than below ground. Ancient forms have built-in coordination between above and below ground functioning, but the human selection of other traits has forced the plant to reconfigure and build new networks. How Long Did Domestication Take? One of the ongoing arguments about wheat is the length of time it took for the domestication process to complete. Some scholars argue for a fairly rapid process, of a few centuries; while others argue that the process from cultivation to domestication took up to 5,000 years. The evidence is abundant that by about 10,400 years ago, domesticated wheat was in widespread use throughout the Levant region; but when that started is up for debate. The earliest evidence for both domesticated einkorn and emmer wheat found to date was at the Syrian site of Abu Hureyra, in occupation layers dated to the Late Epi-paleolithic period, the beginning of the Younger Dryas, ca 13,000–12,000 cal BP; some scholars have argued, however, that the evidence does not show deliberate cultivation at this time, although it does indicate a broadening of the diet base to include a reliance on wild grains including the wheat. Spread Around the Globe: Bouldnor Cliff The distribution of wheat outside of its place of origin is part of the process known as Neolithicization. The culture generally associated with the introduction of wheat and other crops from Asia to Europe is generally the Lindearbandkeramik (LBK) culture, which may have been made up of part immigrant farmers and part local hunter-gatherers adapting new technologies. LBK is typically dated in Europe between 5400–4900 BCE. However, recent DNA studies at Bouldnor Cliff peat bog off the northern coast of mainland England have identified ancient DNA from what was apparently domesticated wheat. Wheat seeds, fragments, and pollen were not found at Bouldnor Cliff, but the DNA sequences from the sediment match Near Eastern wheat, genetically different from LBK forms. Further tests at Bouldnor Cliff have identified a submerged Mesolithic site, 16 m (52 ft) below sea level. The sediments were laid down about 8,000 years ago, several centuries earlier than the European LBK sites. Scholars suggest that the wheat got to Britain by boat. Other scholars have questioned the date, and the aDNA identification, saying it was in too good a condition to be that old. But additional experiments run by British evolutionary geneticist Robin Allaby and preliminarily reported in Watson (2018) have shown that ancient DNA from undersea sediments is more pristine than that from other contexts.   Sources Avni, Raz, et al. Wild Emmer Genome Architecture and Diversity Elucidate Wheat Evolution and Domestication. Science, vol. 357, no. 6346, 2017, pp. 93–97. Print.International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. A Chromosome-Based Draft Sequence of the Hexaploid Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum) Genome. Science, vol. 345, no. 6194, 2014. Print.Fuller, Dorian Q, and Leilani Lucas. Adapting Crops, Landscapes, and Food Choices: Patterns in the Dispersal of Domesticated Plants across Eurasia. Human Dispersal and Species Movement: From Prehistory to the Present. Eds. Boivin, Nicole, Rà ©my Crassard and Michael D. Petraglia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 304–31. Print.Huang, Lin, et al. Evolution and Adaptation of Wild Emmer Wheat Populations to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses. Annual Review of Phytopathology, vol. 54, no. 1, 2016, pp. 279–301. Print.Kirleis, Wiebke, and Elske Fischer. Neolithic Cultivation of Tetraploid Free Threshing Wheat in Denmark and Nort hern Germany: Implications for Crop Diversity and Societal Dynamics of the Funnel Beaker Culture. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 23, no.1, 2014, pp. 81–96. Print.Larson, Greger. How Wheat Came to Britain. Science, vol. 347, no.6225, 2015. Print.Marcussen, Thomas, et al. Ancient Hybridizations among the Ancestral Genomes of Bread Wheat. Science, vol. 345, no. 6194, 2014. Print.Martin, Lucie. Plant Economy and Territory Exploitation in the Alps During the Neolithic (5000–4200  cal Bc): First Results of Archaeobotanical Studies in the Valais (Switzerland). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 24, no. 1, 2015, pp. 63–73. Print.Roucou, Agathe, et al. Shifts in Plant Functional Strategies over the Course of Wheat Domestication. Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 55, no. 1, 2017, pp. 25–37. Print. Smith, Oliver, et al. Sedimentary DNA from a Submerged Site Reveals Wheat in the British Isles 8000 Years Ago. Science, vol. 347, no. 6225, 2015, pp. 998–1001. Print.Watson, Traci. Inner Workings: Fishing for Artifacts beneath the Waves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115, no. 2, 2018, pp. 231-33. Print.